ANC to decide Gauteng, KZN fate in January

ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula confirmed the postponement following Monday's meeting of the National Working Committee with the Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee.

The National Executive Committee meeting, initially scheduled for this weekend, has now been moved to next month. 

According to Mbalula, the NEC will convene after the party’s January 8 anniversary rally in the Western Cape.  

The NEC was expected to deliberate on the NWC’s findings and announce a decision on the future of the Gauteng and KZN PECs. 

Mbalula said that the NWC explored various options, including disbandment, reinforcement, or recalling some provincial leaders.  

“Disbandment is a total overhaul. We remove the current structure and replace it. Or it can be that we are fine with the status quo and the current people are fit for the task with minor tweaks here and there, or we can bring in new people to provide support to the current structure.

“This weekend has become very difficult for us. There's also a lot of traffic when it comes to the timing this December. There is the South African Communist Party conference this weekend, as well as two state visits. We also have the celebrations of Reconciliation Day in Matsikamma.

“We want when we meet and reflect on issues. We need each and every NEC member present. We need them to engage on every report presented to them. This is why it has been shifted to January,” he explained.

Mbalula said the NEC will also consider its role and factors that might have contributed to the election decline.

“If the challenge is leadership, you strengthen that leadership and intervene. If certain things were not done properly leading up to the elections, like coordination, membership and volunteers not being properly organised, you deal with that. If the overall challenge was objective, like the state of governance and load-shedding, that is also dealt with.

“You can't play a blame game to say it is this person or that person. You look at the state of the organisation and answer the question of what needs to be done. 

"We would have lost because of a plethora of issues, whether organisational, which we believe can be fixed for the betterment of the structures to perform better," he said.

Some of the factors that led to Gauteng's electoral decline include ongoing issues with basic service delivery, such as electricity outages, water supply disruptions, and crumbling infrastructure.

The growing dissatisfaction with the management of state-owned enterprises like Eskom also played a role, with rolling blackouts affecting residents and businesses.

Persistent factionalism and leadership disputes weakened the party's unity and distracted it from campaigning efforts.  

Gauteng's urban electorate, particularly in Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Ekurhuleni, showed increasing discontent with the ANC's governance, citing unemployment and crime as key concerns.  

Younger voters, who comprise a significant portion of the Gauteng electorate, showed low engagement with the ANC, perceiving the party as needing to be more in touch with their aspirations.  

Gauteng's high unemployment and slow economic recovery further alienated voters, who blamed the ANC for the lack of tangible progress in addressing these issues.  

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